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WWE Tag Team Championship
The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team championship. Currently, it is exclusive to the SmackDown! brand of World Wrestling Entertainment. History After the Brand Extension in World Wrestling Entertainment, the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship became the only titles allowed to be defended on the RAW and SmackDown! brands, while the remaining titles became exclusive to either brand. During a period of open free agency, RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff was able to sign the WWE Tag Team Champions to the RAW brand after they had originally been drafted on the SmackDown! brand. As a result the original WWE Tag Team Championship became exclusive to the RAW brand, thus leaving the SmackDown! brand without a tag team championship. Following Bischoff's actions, SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon introduced the new WWE Tag Team Championship and commissioned it to be the exclusive tag team title for the SmackDown! brand. She stated that the inaugural champions would be determined from an eight-team tournament. On October 20, 2002, the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, defeated Rey Mysterio and Edge at No Mercy 2002 in the tournament final to win the new WWE Tag Team Championship. With the introduction of the World Heavyweight Championship on the RAW brand after the Undisputed title was moved to the SmackDown! brand and became the WWE Championship again, the original WWE World Tag Team Championship for RAW began to be referred to as simply the World Tag Team Championship. This was done so that the names of both tag team titles would mirror the names of the top championships on each brand. However, when the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship switched brands during the 2005 Draft Lottery, neither of the tag team titles were renamed. Statistics Trivia *The Dudley Boyz are the only team to have held the tag team titles from SmackDown!, RAW, WCW, ECW, NWA and TNA *Chris Benoit has also held the SmackDown!, RAW, WCW, and ECW Tag Team Titles (albeit each with different partners). *Paul London holds the record for most days as WWE Tag Team Champion with 394 days in his 2 title reigns together (with Billy Kidman and Brian Kendrick) surpassing MNM's old record of 291 days as champions, and Charlie Haas' former record of 236 days. *Eddie Guerrero, Batista, and Montel Vontavious Porter also held singles titles during their WWE Tag Team Championship reigns. Guerrero and MVP held the WWE United States Championship during their reigns, with Eddie holding it in his third. Batista held the World Heavyweight Championship. This, in fact, led to a first for SmackDown!, on September 23, 2003, when Eddie Guerrero defended both championships in one night. He and tag team partner Chavo Guerrero (as Los Guerreros) defeated Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore to retain their belts, and later on in the show Eddie successfully defended his US Championship against Charlie Haas. Current champions The current champions are Carlito and Primo Colon who are in their first reign. They defeated defending champions Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder for the titles in a match that they won on September 21, 2008, which is scheldued to be aired on September 26, 2008 in Columbus, Ohio. See also *World Wrestling Entertainment *World Tag Team Championship - WWE's other tag team championship on the Monday Night RAW brand. *Title history - History of the championship. *Champion history - History of the wrestlers who have held the belt. *Title matches - Matches in which the title was defended. *Reigns by length - Lists of the length and reigns. External links *WWE Tag Team Title History WWE Tag Team WWE Tag Team